Reform education for national success.

This blogger might have a sense of how important a quality education is but cannot claim to have a deep appreciation of the same. This blogger has always been a middling student, taking wins and losses as they came because of the incredible support he has received from his parents. This blogger's parents are authorities in their own fields and they have done all parents can do to instil a sense of pride in academic achievement.

This blogger's experience is atypical of the Kenyan experience. From an early age, it is impressed upon Kenyan pupils and students that they will not get to where they wish to go if they do not excel in school. It is why there is prestige in being allocated a place at a premier, national school. When one meets a Form-Four-leaver who was a student at the Starehe Boys' Centre, the Alliance High School or the Mang'u High School, one immediately associates the former student with rigorous training and determined focus. The same cannot be said for a student who successfully sits his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education at the thousands of district schools that dot our fair land.

It is disingenuous for pundits to claim that all students are the same regardless of the secondary schools they attend. The legacy national schools such as Starehe and Alliance have some "it" factor that all other schools, including the recently elevated national ones, do not. It is difficult to determine precisely what makes a good national school, but it goes without saying that an experienced faculty and abundant facilities are up there in the list of priorities.

In Kenya education is the magic bullet to a successful life, success being measured by either entrepreneurial success or a high-paying job in the public, private or Third sectors. While a few Kenyans have made a name for themselves in athletics or sports, they are few and far between, but it is education that defines the Kenyan experience. It is also why parents nationwide want the most solid of foundations for their children by having them attend the very best high school and the very best university.

It is in this context that the publicly-funded school system's problems should be seen. The crisis in the education sector must be tackled if the children of Kenya are to have a chance at competing with their peers overseas. Teacher remuneration has been a bone of contention for almost twenty years. While politicians keep saying that education is important to them, they see no irony in lining their pockets at the expense of the teachers. The teachers' unions, by and large, have done a piss poor job of making the case for better teacher remuneration. While education takes a very large chunk of the national expenditure, it is still no enough. Thousands of schools are schools in name only. They lack basic facilities such as classrooms or, indeed, teachers. If we are to make the dream that is Kenya a practical reality, it is in the education sector that reforms are needed.